Arsenal seeks to respond from surprise loss

LONDON (AP): Arsenal is looking to bounce back from a surprise Premier League loss and capture the point it needs to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.

A draw with Standard Liege at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday will be enough to make sure unbeaten Arsenal takes one of the top two spots from Group H, although Wenger will want his team to do it in style after Saturday's 1-0 loss to Sunderland.

"Mentally it's a blow," Wenger said after his side slipped to third in the Premier League standings and eight points behind leader Chelsea. "We were not good enough. We choked a little bit."

The good news for Wenger is that his side is in no real danger of failing to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League. Even a loss to the Belgian club on Tuesday would leave the Gunners three points ahead of Standard with one more game to go.

Arsenal has 10 points from three wins and a draw and is four points ahead of Olympiakos, which visits last-place Dutch champion AZ Alkmaar on Tuesday. Standard has four points and, having lost 3-2 at home to the Gunners back in September, needs to win by two goals at the Emirates, beat Alkmaar at home and hope the Gunners lose to the Greek champion.

Tuesday's game gives Wenger the opportunity to let some of his backup players take the spotlight, especially since top scorer Robin van Persie is out of action for several weeks with damaged angle ligaments.

Wenger praised Carlos Vela for his performance as a substitute at Sunderland as the Mexican played the last 19 minutes and set up chances of an equalizer that never came.

"Vela is a fantastic talent and he is 20-years-old," Wenger said. "We have invested a lot of time for him because we put him in Spain for two years, got him back and now we work with him every day."

Wenger said that Vela's talent and potential convinced him he didn't need to buy a replacement for striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who left Arsenal for Manchester City during the August transfer window.

"I believe he is a Robbie Fowler-type," Wenger said in reference to the talented former Liverpool goalscorer. "He needs very little time to make a decision in the box. He is relaxed when he finishes and he has very short backlift. He is as well left-footed and he is a similar size."

Despite taking a third minute lead, Standard lost 2-1 to Gent on Saturday to slide 10 points behind leader Anderlecht in the Belgium league.

Thierry Henry considered quitting international football

PARIS (AP) - Thierry Henry says the outcry over his hand ball in France's World Cup playoff against Ireland pushed him to the brink of international retirement.

French sports daily L'Equipe quoted the Barcelona striker in an interview as saying he felt abandoned and deeply upset by the virulent criticism he received from former players and politicians.

Henry's hand ball before passing for defender William Gallas to score helped give France a 1-1 draw with Ireland and a 2-1 win on aggregate, advancing the team to next year's tournament in South Africa.

"The day after the match and the next day, I felt alone, really alone," said Henry, adding that he gave serious thought about quitting the French team. "Oh, yes I did. Friday, when everything had gone too far, I was very worked up."

After receiving criticism from former players such as former Ireland and Marseille striker Tony Cascarino and French sports minister Roselyne Bachelot, Henry said it was his friends and family who talked him out of retiring from international football.

"Despite everything that happened, the fact I felt abandoned, I will not drop my country," he said. "I asked myself the question. Without the support of my loved ones, maybe I wouldn't have thought the same way. Now, I've decided - I'll always fight until the end.

"It's been very hard, everything started from something that happens in a game and it went too far. I heard some people giving lectures about this, when I said I was sorry, on the pitch and off it."

Henry received criticism for wildly celebrating Gallas' goal in front of dejected Irish players.

"I shouldn't have done that. But honestly, it was uncontrollable ... Yes, I regret that," he said.

However, Henry dodged the issue of whether he should have immediately told referee Martin Hansson he had handled the ball.

"I was in a no-win situation," he said, adding that the incident will not overshadow his whole career.

"I don't think that everything I've achieved can be tarnished."

Defoe in Spurs blitz

LONDON: England striker Jermain Defoe scored five second-half goals as an irresistible Tottenham Hotspur demolished Wigan Athletic 9-1 to go fourth in the Premier League yesterday.

Defoe stunned the hapless visitors with a mesmerising second-half blitz at White Hart Lane after Spurs had gone in 1-0 up at the break thanks to a ninth-minute Peter Crouch header.

After hitting the bar in the 34th minute, Defoe opened his account in the 51st and wasted no time in completing his hat-trick seven minutes later.

He then netted again in the 69th and completed his tally with a right-foot shot three minutes from time as Tottenham fans sang “we want 10“.

Aaron Lennon also struck in the 64th while shell-shocked Wigan keeper Chris Kirkland added to the goal tally in the 88th when a David Bentley shot rebounded off the angle, hit him on the back and went in.

Croatia’s Niko Kranjcar scored in the dying seconds to wrap up Tottenham’s biggest win for 32 years, when they beat Bristol Rovers 9-0 in the second division, and their biggest in the Premier League.

Paul Scharner’s goal for Wigan in the 57th minute prevented Tottenham matching Manchester United’s Premier League record 9-0 thrashing of Ipswich at Old Trafford in 1995.

There was controversy in Scharner’s goal, with the player appearing to control the ball with his hand before scoring.

Tottenham are level on 25 points with North London rivals Arsenal but behind the Gunners on goal difference.

The top teams played on Saturday, with Chelsea (33 points) beating Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 to stay five clear of champions Manchester United who overcame Everton 3-0 at Old Trafford. Arsenal lost 1-0 at Sunderland.

Blackburn Rovers shrugged off the absence of manager Sam Allardyce, who is awaiting heart surgery, to beat his former club Bolton Wanderers 2-0 in yesterday’s lunchtime kickoff.

Victory in the Lancashire derby ended Blackburn’s run of 10 successive away defeats, the team’s first points on their travels this season lifting them to 11th place.

Defeat left Bolton third from bottom.

David Dunn netted the opener in the 32nd minute, curling the ball into the top corner past the outstretched Jussi Jaaskelainen in goal.

Bolton defender Sam Ricketts then headed into his own net in the 73rd.